Rhapsodize Audio presents

Odes from the Convivio by Dante Alighieri.

Translated by Phillip H. Wicksteed.

Performed by Denis Daly

Music from Viderunt Omnes, by Magister Perotinus, performed by Vox Altera Ensemble

Il Convivio, or the Banquet is one of the most unusual compositions of a great poet, both in intent and structure.   The book, which is unfinished, consists of four treatises among which are interposed fifteen canzone, which the translator describes as odes.  The general subject is the process of acquiring knowledge, wisdom and virtue.  Dante provides detailed descriptions of the struggle to attain a state of ideal intellectual and moral balance and the depiction of the intellectual and artistic climate in medieval Italy has remained engaging and thought-provoking through the succeeding centuries.

This recording includes all fifteen odes in a translation, which, while dignified and sonorous, still conveys the burning ardour of a poet, who was a true disciple of love.  

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